Manehattan was none the wiser as to what was going to happen to it. A few ponies had been made aware, certainly, and Captain Greywhisker was in the process of briefing the Mayor, but other than that it was life as normal. Truth was that they were only minutes away from a reminder that life was far from normal, and likely wouldn't be for a long time.

Rainbow wasn't sure which part of doing this that pissed her off more. That it had come to this, having to sabotage anything useful that Faust could use against them, or that the ponies of Manehattan had no idea about any of it. So long as the papers and milk turned up the next morning, who really cared?

She pushed the thought away as being unfair. They were being left to the mercy of the Mareitanians, all in the name of some misplaced greater good, and they would soon be aware of their predicament. The first warning would be a press announcement. The second would be the destruction of various production facilities around the city, and the third would probably be a vanguard of griffons. The problem was that any of those events could happen before the others.

"How's it going Rainbow?" Lightning asked, a slight, sullen edge to her words. Considering what happened over the last twenty-four hours, it wasn't hard to imagine why.

"I'll be done in five," Rainbow replied, connecting a wire up to a bundle of other wires. Their squadron, or all nine surviving members of it, had been given the dubious honour of destroying the factory that produced their armour. Considering it had just been rebuilt after the bombing that occurred during Celestia's visit, it felt cruel to destroy it like this.

"Okay. Our scouts report that the Mareitanians are only twenty miles out, so we'll have an hour before the main bulk of their forces get here."

"You're about to say there might be griffons, aren't you?"

"Eehhh..." Lightning levelled a hoof, "There's a distinct possibility that there might be griffons, yes. We're aiming to at least be on the way out of here before they arrive, so five minutes is all you have."

"I'll be done in four."

"Aim for three."

"Got it." Rainbow started working as fast as she dared. In other circumstances she'd insist on doing it all in ten seconds flat, but there was something about working with high explosives that encouraged her towards caution.

The other members of her squadron were working similarly quick, racing around the open spaces the factory offered to complete their task. The factory had been evacuated before they began, so at the very least they didn't have to worry about anypony getting hurt in the blast.

Rainbow stepped back a few steps to inspect her work, and nodded with half baked satisfaction that it all seemed to be in order. It also came as no surprise to her that she was the first to finish, so to speed things up she sought out the pony most behind to help. Much to her everlasting lack of surprise it was Vapor who was the most behind, although she couldn't really blame the mare, even if she was endangering their task.

"Hey," Rainbow said gently, flying over to Vapor. "You want some help?"

Vapor hurriedly rubbed some tears away, "Sorry, what was that? I-um, might have been a bit distracted."

"I asked if you want some help."

"Oh." Vapor stared at the bundle of wires in front of her and sighed at the mess she'd made of them. "Yes please."

Rainbow eased Vapor aside and took a moment to stare in confusion at the mess Vapor had made, then started to untangle it and do it correctly. She wanted to joke about how much of a mess it was, but knew well enough to keep her mouth shut around Vapor right now.

"Aren't you going to ask me if I'm alright?"

"Uh..." Rainbow turned to look Vapor in her watery eyes. "No offense, but I don't need a degree in psychology to tell that you're far from alright."

"It won't stop hurting. I loved him Rainbow, and now he's just... gone." Vapor sniffed and rubbed her eyes again, only to choke into more tears. "I never got to tell him how I felt."

Rainbow wanted to say it was pretty obvious, but Sky was denser than a diamond to not pick up on it. Instead she hummed a little affirmative, most of her thoughts going towards sorting the explosives out.

"Why would those griffons do that? It was supposed to be peaceful! Instead they killed all those ponies, and they killed my Sky!"

"I know."

"Well I'm going to kill as many of them as I can."

"Sounds like a pla-" Rainbow stopped as she figured out what Vapor had just said, really not expecting to hear such a thing from her. "What? You don't mean all griffons do you? Just the ones attacking us, right?"

"Are you telling me you don't hate griffons?" Vapor asked, shocked at Rainbow for not sharing her opinion. "After they've killed so many of us?"

"That's not fair Vapor. There's a lot more griffons that haven't done a thing to hurt us, compared to the amount that have. I'm not saying the griffons are a pleasant bunch, but I don't hate all of them. I'm even friends with a griffon in Griffonstone, although she can be a bit of a jerk at times."

"But-"

"No buts Vapor. The Mareitanians are ponies, but do you find yourself hating all ponies because of them?"

"No, of course not!"

"There you go then."

"Doesn't mean I don't hate all the Mareitanians though!"

Rainbow grunted a sigh at Vapor's reasoning. She understood where Vapor was coming from easily enough, but only a small portion of griffons were attacking them, and the Mareitanians were being controlled by Faust, so it was hard to tell how much you could blame them for their actions. Hating all griffons for the actions of a few though, that was just... well, not silly, but it certainly wasn't reasonable.

"Look, I'm sorry you lost Sky, I really am, but hating the griffons isn't going to make you feel better, and neither is killing them. If you want to hate somepony, hate Faust. She's the reason all of this is happening."

Vapor went quiet, and for a moment Rainbow thought she'd gotten through to her. Her hopes were dashes though as Vapor stomped her hooves angrily. "I thought you would've understood Rainbow."

"And I do, I really do. Seriously, fuck the Bloodfeathers, and fuck the Golden Claws, but I'm not going to start hating all the griffons because of them! Just as I'm not going to start hating the princesses because Faust is an alicorn like them. See where I'm coming from here?"

"So... wait, you'd happily kill all those griffons that fight for Faust?"

"Yeah, in a heartbeat, but not because I hate griffons. I just want them to stop killing my friends."

"Oh." Vapor sat down and wrapped a leg around herself, "I'm sorry Rainbow, I didn't mean to yell at you."

"Don't worry about it. I know what you're coming from, I do, but you can't let yourself get eaten up by hating things and being angry all the time. You'll just end up hurting yourself, and getting yourself killed, and there are quite a few of us that don't want that to happen. You're not alone Vapor, remember that."

"I... I will."

Rainbow grinned at Vapor, but lost it as Vapor stared off into the distance, tears growing in her eyes again. She supposed one little talk was hardly enough to make the pain of losing Sky go away. Still, she could be at least a little happy that Vapor had listened to her, and given up her thoughts of taking her pain out on all griffons.

The next few minutes passed in silence, giving Rainbow the time she needed to sort out Vapor's portion of the demolition. She could feel Lightning watching her impatiently though, as they were running quite significantly over the five minute time limit she'd given them. It didn't help that the rest of the squadron was waiting either.

"You know, you could've helped instead of standing there," Rainbow pointed out to them as she finished up.

"It's a one pony job to do what you did," Lightning said back. "Still, you're done, so let's blow this popsicle stand and get out of here."

"What about the other squadrons?" Rainbow asked.

"Them and the Night Guard should be finishing up soon, then we can all get out of here." Lightning gestured for them all to follow her outside, but stopped just as the sound griffon calls reached her ears. "That was the plan anyway," Lightning groaned.

An explosion echoed around the city, followed by another, and another, the sound bouncing around the skyscrapers for several seconds before dissipating. At the very least some of their targets had been destroyed.

"Thunderlane, get that plunger set up, then let's blow this place and go help the others."

"It's already set up," Thunderlane said, sounding a little insulted that Lightning thought that he hadn't already done it. "All you need to do is push it."

"Oh, uh, good work. All of you spread out to check the radius is clear of ponies."

Rainbow complied, quickly flying around the area to check nopony was close enough to get caught in the blast. Nopony was, so she shouted that it was clear, along with the others, then backed off herself. That's when it felt like the air kicked her, and she found herself getting smacked backwards by the force of the detonation.

By the time she'd recovered, the area was full of dust and smoke, and the building was very much destroyed, just as planned, meaning it was time to get out of there. The rest were already gathering by the time she got there, and with an order from Lightning they started making their way back to regroup with the rest of their forces in the park at the city centre.

They stayed low, weaving through the streets rather than flying above them where they could be more easily spotted by the griffons. There were plenty of other ponies out in the streets, having heard the explosions, with several more having gone off since their flight began, and it also meant they were able to hear the calls of the griffons. It was easy to tell they were frightened, and they had good reason to be, especially if they could see what was happening in the park.

Hundreds of ponies clashed with an even larger number of griffons in the skies over the park, and already bodies of both were dotted around on the grass below. Lightning showed no hesitation in joining the dogfight, drawing her blades and diving right in to try and find the rest of the Wonderbolts. They failed, as the Wonderbolts weren't even there.

Rainbow was about to suggest they get out of the fight when the roar of thunder tore through the air. The rest of the Wonderbolts had arrived, and were putting their newly acquired skills to the test by conjuring lightning and throwing it at the griffons. In the target rich environment they had, most of them succeeded.

All of them put the distraction to use, attacking what griffons they could before the surprise wore off. Moments later the griffons made the call to retreat, and the park emptied of griffons, leaving the temporarily victorious Equestrians to discuss what next. Rainbow made sure to get a spot near captains Spitfire and Greywhisker so she could hear the plan.

"That would've gone a lot differently if all the griffons had shown up," Spitfire said to Greywhisker.

"That's just it, a lot of them flew south towards Fillydelphia. I think they've worked out what we're doing, and gone to try and stop it down there, and in Baltimare."

Spitfire cursed quietly, "I guess that means it's up to us to go stop them? Heh, stopping them from stopping us destroying our own stuff. That's a special kind of fubar right there."

"Isn't it just?" Greywhisker snickered. "Have all your targets been destroyed?"

"Yeah, eventually. Yours?"

Greywhisker nodded, "They have indeed, and I've briefed the mayor on the situation. Suffice to say, he was not impressed with any of this, but there's little we can do about it now. Since we're done here, we should probably get moving. I don't know about you, but I have no wish to see the Mareitanians arriving."

Spitfire shrugged at Greywhisker, "I wouldn't mind giving the Mareitanians a few licks before we go." She shrugged again, "Here's hoping they're at least reasonable about how they take the city. Sooo... first one to Fillydelphia gets to kill all the griffons?"

"You're on," Greywhisker replied with a grin."

"How the hell are we supposed to destroy that?" Limestone said, staring up at the imposing towers of the Fillydelphia steelworks. "Couldn't we have been given the munitions factory instead? All you'd have to do is throw a match into that place."

"I'm sure some distance would be required," said Maud.

"Yes, I realise that, thank you." Limestone huffed and took a moment to look around the hundred or so other ponies that had been sent with them to the steelworks. A mix of earth ponies and unicorns, both Mage Corps and not, as well as an escort of those insane pegasus Exiles that fought without armour. How they were meant to work together to destroy this place was a mystery to her, but she supposed it wasn't her place to argue, as much as she wanted to.

"So we collapse the towers onto the buildings?" she said, again to Maud as she was the only other pony next to her. "That's it?"

"Once we cut through the framework of the towers, yes." As she spoke, a dozen ponies were busy cutting through the steel supports of the towers with torches, sending tiny rivulets of steel running down to the ground.

"How do you make the steel to build the steel things that produce the steel?" Limestone asked a moment later. "Isn't that kinda, well, silly?"

"You can make steel without all of this."

"I know that."

"Oh."

"It just seems me like it'd take a really long time to build if you're having to make each piece to build it by hoof." Limestone shrugged, "A lot longer than it's going to take to destroy it."

"Not if those griffons stop us," Maud said, turning her head up to watch the sky as a large number of griffons turned up from the north. The Exiles jumped to engage them, and the fighting soon filled the skies.

"And here I was thinking this'd be a milk run," Limestone grumbled as she and Maud sought cover nearer the towers where their sisters and squadmates were. "Get yourself ready for a fight ladies."

"But what if I don't wanna?" Azure whined, pouting at Limestone.

"I really hope you're kidding."

"Of course I am!" Azure pulled a rock out of her bag and hefted it in her hoof, "We owe them for Top Spin."

Limestone nodded, and prepared herself to protect the ponies cutting through the tower supports, and those setting up the modest amount of dynamite required to finish the job. She didn't have to wait long as griffons began to swoop down towards them, and she wound her hoof back, letting fly a rock as the ponies around them opened fire with crossbow and magic.

Her aim was true as the stone met a griffon between the eyes, dropping it out of the sky, along with a dozen others. The remaining griffons pulled up and scattered, giving them a moment's reprieve.

"There's even more griffons coming from the north," Lyra shouted, heralding the arrival of yet more griffons that dived down towards the towers.

Limestone prepared to attack again, but the griffons stopped, instead firing the crossbows they held in their claws. Limestone swore loudly and dived to the side, tackling Marble into cover, unnecessarily so, but she was still feeling protective of her youngest sister. Several other ponies weren't so lucky.

Shields popped up around the base of the tower, stopping the griffons from shooting those within. Unfortunately this meant that those behind the shields couldn't attack either, and there was nothing they could do to deter the griffons from closing into mêlée range, except hope the shields held.

Heat started to build under the shield from the torches, and all of them were soon showing It with sweat as the griffons taunted them from outside. Limestone was close to asking the shield be dropped so they could attack, which would only be a pretence for escaping the increasingly unbearable temperature.

The griffons soon had other concerns as more pegasi joined the fight, chasing them off and giving the ponies on the ground a chance to lower the shields, although they kept ready just in case. Work proceeded apace after that, and it quickly became time to blow the towers, the griffons having failed to stop them.

Limestone quickly ran some checks on the explosives, not that she was any more of an expert than the ponies setting them up. As far as she could tell, they would destroy the remaining structure on one side of the tower, leaving it, and the other tower, to fall onto the large building between them.

Satisfied, or at least having found nothing to complain about, Limestone followed the ponies with her as they unwound a cable and ran it over to a spot reasonably far away from the detonation. Pinkie was already there, setting up a plunger to detonate it all, and was already connecting the wire from the other tower as they arrived.

"All good Pinkie?" Limestone asked as her pink sister worked feverishly.

"I think so, yes? Maybe? Possibly. Perhaps not." Pinkie pointed towards the towers, and more specifically the griffons flying down towards them. "I think they might be trying to sabotage the saboteurs. Devious really..."

"For shit sake!" Limestone turned and started running back to the towers. It was clear they were going to have to protect the towers now, which would leave them uncomfortably close to them when they should be blowing up, but that was better than the griffons stopping them. "Shout when you're ready Pinkie!"

"Will do!"

Limestone scooped at stone up and threw it as hard as she could at the back of a griffon's head, cracking her skull open in a spray of blood. The other griffons turned to face them, and a few more fell before they decided to flee, although some took pot-shots back at the ponies before doing so.

Limestone quickly inspected the explosives, and fumed at the sight of some of the wires having been cut. She quickly stripped the ends in her teeth and twisted them back together, hoping the simple jury-rig would work.

Griffons buzzed around the towers, only seeming to increase in number as the pegasi decreased. They could only hope that their winged allies weren't all dead, but either way it was clear that they'd lost the fight. A few were still fighting, but as more griffons turned their attention to the ground forces, it was clear their efforts made little difference.

"It's ready!" Pinkie shouted, barely able to be heard over the sound of the griffons as they celebrated their victory over the pegasi. At the very least they'd allowed the ground forces to complete their mission before fleeing, or worse, whatever had happened to them.

"Move!" Limestone shouted, leading the rush back to the relative safety of distance as the griffons started to make an attack on Pinkie's position, her shout having alerted them that they were close to losing their prize. A barrage of magic and arrows held them off, giving Pinkie the time she needed to push the plunger down once everypony was safely away from the towers.

The detonations weren't very big, but they were enough to take out the final support of the towers, sending the massive edifices teetering over to fall onto the rest of the steelworks, doing more than enough damage to render it totally inoperable. The force of the impacts was enough to knock most of the ponies still running off their hooves, and the world went dark as a wave of dust rolled over them.

Limestone coughed the dust out of her lungs and wiped the dirt out of her eyes. She stood, her ribs aching from the impact of getting thrown to the ground, and tried to regain her bearings through the brown fog around her. She could hear plenty of other ponies, but couldn't see many of them, and there was no sight at all of Pinkie and her sisters.

"Everypony get up, we need to move!" Limestone put her words into action, running around and dragging as many ponies to their hooves as she could. The dust was starting to drift away on a gentle breeze, clearing the area enough to let them see the griffons landing around them.

Limestone turned around, trying to find a way out, but failed. They were completely surrounded, with no way out, as was Pinkie's group, who surrendered without a fight, dropping their weapons. With considerable reluctance, Limestone did the same."

"Shit."

They'd been able to see the griffons all the way to Fillydelphia, but hadn't been able to catch them up. They still hadn't caught them up as they reached the city and the griffons split up to re-join their forces already there, aiming to stop the Equestrians from sabotaging what they sought to acquire.

It was already too late though, as the massive cloud of dust coming from the steelworks to the south could attest to. There was also a large amount of smoke coming from elsewhere in the city, and a few other places. The griffons had failed to prevent anything.

"That's a relief," said Spitfire. "Hopefully things went smoothly in Baltimare, so we can get out of here."

"Where are the rest of our forces?" Greywhisker asked in response to what Spitfire had said. He pointed towards the train station as they flew over the city, "The troop transport is still there. Why is it still there? More importantly, why are there griffons crawling all over it?"

"Wasn't your friend Pinkie and her team here?" Lightning asked Rainbow out of the side of her mouth. She got a stiff nod in return. "Captain, if the griffons have control of the city here, should we consider that our forces have been captured?"

"Or wiped out," said Greywhisker. "I don't think it's worth risking ourselves to find out. We should head for Canterlot."

"What?" Rainbow cried. "No! We can't just leave them if they've been taken captive!"

"I hate to say it Dash," Spitfire said, fully aware of why Rainbow would object to leaving them, "but we don't have the numbers to conduct a full rescue operation. We don't really have the numbers to do anything. I'm sorry."

"But- But- But Pinkie's one of the Elements of Harmony! Surely that means she's a priority, or something? That means we have to rescue her!"

"If the Elements of Harmony were such a priority," Greywhisker said, far less sympathetically than Spitfire, "the princesses would never have let them, or you, fight on the front lines. They've been captured, so they're probably safer there anyway."

Rainbow gawped open-mouthed at the thestral captain, "Are you kidding me? You saw what those griffons did in Appleloosa! Why the hell would they worry about not killing our ponies if they have no problem with killing civilians?"

"Rainbow does have a point Captain," Lightning said, backing Rainbow up.

"That doesn't change the fact that we don't have the numbers to stage a rescue," Greywhisker reminded them. "There's no point in us getting ourselves killed in a failed rescue attempt."

Soarin and Fleetfoot flew up, one on each side of Spitfire. "Come on Cap," said Soarin, "we never left anypony behind in Mareitania."

"We were the superior force in Mareitania," Spitfire reminding him. "We never really needed to leave anypony behind."

"Then we go stealthy," said Fleetfoot. "Sneak in and break them out at night. The griffons won't even know what happened."

Greywhisker rolled his eyes, "If you continue with this action, you will do it without us."

Another of the Night Guard flew to the front to join the conversation, giving Spitfire a quick wink. "Come on Captain," Shadow said with a hint of pleading in her voice. "We're the masters of hunting at night. We'll be able to do it easily."

"No, I forbid it, and if you go ahead with this, I will have you all court-martialled."

"Better start warming up your seat in the courtroom then, because I'm totally up for saving those ponies down there."

Greywhisker narrowed his eyes at Shadow, but stopped as a large number of the other thestrals joined her. "You ponies from Mareitania have been nothing but trouble. It's a pity you're some of the best warriors in the Night Guard as well." With a huff he turned back to Spitfire, "Refuse this idiot notion so we can all get back to Canterlot."

Spitfire looked back and forth between Greywhisker, and those wanting to mount a rescue, wondering why the decision had landed on her to make. She knew that Greywhisker was right, and that there was no point in risking it all for the ponies captured here. She also knew deep down, that leaving them wasn't the right thing to do.

"We're going in."

Greywhisker stared aghast at Spitfire, "Have you all gone mad? Do you even realise how much you're risking here?"

"Altius volantis, Greywhisker," Spitfire replied with a grin. "If we can get the train running, and make a path between where our ponies are captured and the station, we could have them out of here in no time. Are you with us?"

"I guess I have to be," Greywhisker grumbled. "I assure you I will be having words about this with Luna when, or rather if we make it back."

Turns out the grass in the hoofball stadium was edible. That came as a great relief as the hunger pangs started to set in. Pinkie rolled over on the grass, a few strands of the short grass between her teeth as she tried to work out how to get out of the situation they were in.

It was clear to her now that the pegasi had abandoned them. That was a rather cheap move, but perhaps they'd known something those without wings hadn't, like, for example, the true number of the griffons. If the griffons had outnumbered them when the griffons already had them beaten anyway, perhaps running away was a prudent decision, and Pinkie wouldn't blame them for making it.

On the other hoof, they'd completely wussed out at the prospect of another fight, and had left those on the ground to desperately complete their mission and accept the consequences. Again, Pinkie couldn't really blame them, as she didn't really want to fight any more either.

The war couldn't be going more wrong right now if they tried, so perhaps it was for the best they were captured and kept out of it all. A prison camp had to be a lot safer than a battlefield after all. Who knows, it could even act as a nice little vacation from everything.

Pinkie smiled a little and shrugged to herself. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe Faust would even let her see her friends if she asked nicely enough. Sure the world would be in trouble, and dangerously short on smiles, but she'd be safe with her friends again, which is all she ever wanted really. Twilight could fix it though, and then everything could go back to the way it was, more or less.

Pinkie lost her smile. Twilight had never gone back to the way she was after her time in Mareitania. Perhaps you could never really go back. Yes things would be peaceful again, but the memories would always be there to remind you of what you had lost to get to that point. The things you'd seen, the ponies you'd lost...

Top Spin had never been the most vocal of ponies, and Pinkie had to admit she knew less about Top Spin than she liked. What had her dreams and ambitions been before she... yeah. Did she dream of becoming a tennis champion? Or of starting a family with a hunky stallion? Was she content to live a quiet life? Pinkie didn't know, and now she never would because Top Spin was gone.

Tension gripped Pinkie's chest, and she tried to stifle her tears, but there was no helping it as a sob escaped her. Top Spin was dead, and Pinkie didn't know whether she had anypony to cry for her and the amazing future she'd had stolen away from her, or any of the ponies that had lost their lives in this terrible war. Maybe not all of them had ponies to cry for them, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she did. Somepony had to think of them if nopony else was.

"Pinkie? Are you crying?"

Pinkie quickly wiped her eyes as Azure sat up, her purple eyes shining in what little light they had to see by. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I was just thinking about Top Spin."

"I wasn't sleeping. I was thinking about her too."

"You were?"

"Yeah. I just can't help thinking about what we could've done different, y'know? I should never have suggested going to that stupid concert in the first place."

Pinkie jumped up and grabbed Azure in a hug as tears started running down her cheeks, holding her tightly as Azure shuddered, trying to hold back her sobs. "You can't blame yourself Azure."

"But it's my fault we were there! It's my fault she's dead! If I'd just kept my stupid mouth shut we could've stayed somewhere safe instead!"

"If you want to blame yourself for that, you can blame all of us. We all wanted to go-"

"Not me," Limestone grumbled.

"-Except Limestone," Pinkie continued smoothly. "The only ones to blame are the griffons for attacking there, and bad luck that our friends got caught up in their plan."

"But I almost got your sister killed! And Lyra!"

"I know, but never for a moment would I have blamed you. I like you too much for that." Pinkie smiled at Azure, seeing her self-loathing lessen a little. She still seemed unsure though, and Pinkie ended up extra confused when Azure leaned forwards and kissed her.

"Woah-woah-woah!" Pinkie leant back and held Azure at arms length. "What are you doing Azure?"

Azure's eyes darted around the rest of her team, "Is that not what we were going for there?" Pinkie shook her head slowly and firmly. "Oh, my bad. Totally my bad. I may have misread the situation slightly."

"You owe me twenty bits," Marble whispered to Limestone as the two ponies stared at each other, one shocked, and the other a little disappointed by what had happened.

"I owe everypony twenty bits. I was the only pony that bet for it."

"Everypony?" Lyra questioned.

"Yeah, that was a hundred bits if I'd won." There was a short pause as Limestone sighed. "I think I'll donate Top Spin's to a tennis charity or something. She deserves that much off me."

Azure raised an eyebrow at the ponies around her. "You put bets on us kissing? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be disgusted by that, or disappointed that only Limestone bet in my favour."

"Actually we all agreed the kissing might happen," said Limestone. "We were actually betting on whether Pinkie would reciprocate it or not. Truthfully I only sided with you because the odds were so good."

"Really? Pinkie, help me out here."

"Aw let them have their fun." Pinkie nudged Azure on the side, making the purple pony smile crookedly.

"I feel like such an idiot now."

"Aww,' Pinkie cooed, "it's alright, I'm not angry at you or anything. I'm actually kind of flattered."

Azure opened her mouth to speak, but the words were lost to a roar of thunder that followed the streak of lightning that knocked a griffon out of the sky. Then a lot more followed.

Rainbow wiped the blood off her blades and sheathed them, along with the ponies around her at the train station. So far they'd managed to take out the griffons guarding the train with nothing having gone wrong, which could only be a good sign. Above them the thestrals patrolled the sky, hidden in the darkness.

"Doesn't look like they've tampered with the train," Fleetfoot after checking it for a couple of minutes. "Not that I'd really know if they had. I guess all we can do now is light the fire, get the train ready, and hope it actually works."

"Hopefully without breaking it," Spitfire said before turning to Lightning, "A squadron is going to stay here and hold the station," she added to Lightning. "You, C squadron, and the thestrals go release the captives."

"Yes ma'am."

"And for the love of Celestia, make sure High Rise stays with you. I know he's not Sky Stinger, but I can't let him fly solo."

Lightning glanced over at High Rise, the white stallion staring resolutely at the floor. First he'd lost most of his squadron over Stalliongrad, and then Fire Streak had died, and now he'd lost both of his wingmates in B squadron. Lightning could understand why he refused to look at anypony after that.

"I'll keep an eye on him ma'am."

"I'll hold you to that."

"Does anypony have a match?" Fleetfoot asked, scrabbling with the shutter to the train's firebox. She opened it, and backed off as the heat inside blasted her in the face. "Nevermind, that's still way hot. Soarin, find the shovel and get some coal in there."

"Why am I the shovel pony?"

Fleetfoot rolled her eyes, "Spitfire, make him an offer he can't refuse."

Spitfire whispered something in Soarin's ear, his wings raising a little bit. "All the way in?" he asked, getting a nod from Spitfire. "Hot damn! Out the way ponies, I have coal to shovel!"

"Let's go ponies," Lightning said quickly, knowing that somepony was bound to make a comment if she didn't distract them.

They joined the thestrals in the sky and sought out Greywhisker in the hopes that he could provide them a decent overview of what to expect. When they found him, eventually, his dark coat and armour hiding him well in the cloudy, moonless night sky, he was hovering with his legs crossed in obvious disdain.

"They don't even know we're here," he tutted. "Their patrols are flying low, are too sporadic, and well, they clearly aren't expecting any trouble of any sort. Typical griffon overconfidence."

"And the prisoners?"

"They're holding them in the stadium under moderate guard. Nothing we can't handle, and it's near the train station too, so there won't be a lengthy run out of here while under attack by griffons. Even better, we've located their captured weapons, and I've dispatched ponies to bring them to the stadium so our ponies can put up a fight during their escape."

"Easy as pie then."

"You could say that. Personally, I'm concerned that we haven't located all the griffons yet. If they're expecting us and planning something, this'll be a massacre."

"Then perhaps we should do this quick. Should we distract them and draw the griffons off while you bust our ponies out?"

"Can you see well enough in the dark to do that? The griffons can probably see you better than you can see them."

Rainbow flew up, joining in with the discussion. "What if we led them into a trap? We draw a load of them off towards an ambush by some of your thestrals, then you take out the rest at the stadium out and we all get out of here?"

Greywhisker rubbed his chin with a hoof, humming as he thought. "There's easily a hundred griffons guarding the stadium, so drawing some off might be good. The trouble is you'll probably attract griffons from elsewhere around the city."

"Then we'll lead them on a merry little chase," Rainbow said with a grin. "Maybe give them a few thousand volts worth of reasons to not mess with the Wonderbolts."

Greywhisker thought some more, then shrugged. "An acceptable plan I suppose, although it's your call Squadron leader Dust."

"Let's do it!" Lightning said confidently. "Where will the ambush be?"

"Fly past the tallest building," Greywhisker told her. "They'll be ready for you."

Lightning and Rainbow saluted, then flew off to explain the plan to the rest of the Wonderbolts, who seemed just as pleased about it as they were. All of them were keen to get a little payback against the griffons for the last couple of days.
"We'll attack from above and blast them with lightning," Lightning explained. "Hopefully that'll convince most of them to chase after us. Just remember to aim for the stands where the griffons are, and not the field where our ponies are. Any questions?"

There were none, so they set their plan into action, flying up high above the stadium, then diving as one. They could just about make out their targets in the stands as well as in the sky, and they let the static build up on their wings as they flew ever closer, reaching the point of no return where they either had to break off or go through with it.

Rainbow shot first, flaring her wings then bringing them together as she went into freefall for a few seconds, her bolt of lightning blasting a griffon out of the sky. The rest of the Wonderbolts fired a moment later, their own bolts of lightning striking down into the stands, and each one striking targets that were immobile and much easier to hit than usual.

All of them pulled up out of their dives and hovered there for a moment as the thunder died out. Not sure what else to do, Rainbow waved her hooves at the griffons and shouted, "Come and get us bird-brains!"

The enraged calls of griffons followed the Wonderbolts up as they raced back into the sky. For extra emphasis, Rainbow built up another lightning bolt and flipped around so she was effectively falling upwards as she fired the lightning bolt back down at the griffons that were chasing after them.

Other calls from griffons sounded from around the city, joining those that were chasing the Wonderbolts, and they began to wonder if they'd made a mistake as more and more griffons started chasing after them, undeterred by the intermittent bolts of lightning that were fired back at them.

The massive form of a skyscraper loomed out of the darkness, and the Wonderbolts raced around it, splitting up to fly around both sides, and encouraging the griffons to do the same. Nothing happened at first, but then the griffons started crying out in pain and dismay as a large number of dark shapes pushed up from the side of the building out of their sight, and started cutting into the griffon flight.

The Wonderbolts stopped and turned back, joining the short ambush, mercilessly picking apart the hundred strong flight of griffons that fell apart in seconds, either trying to fight an enemy they couldn't see, or fleeing, only to get struck down before they could get anywhere.

Rainbow flipped up, then flapped her wings hard to push herself downwards onto the back of a griffon that was trying to get out of there, her blades piercing the thin armour that lay between the wings of the griffon. She pushed off with her hooves and freed her blades, letting the hen flop lifelessly to the ground far below, and sought out another target, only to find that the thestrals had already finished the job.

"Sweet!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Guess we showed them!"

"We're not done yet though," said Lightning, turning back towards the stadium. "Come on!"

All the members of the Hard Corps, as well as every pony in the stadium, cautiously removed their hooves from their ears as the thunder died. The sounds of the griffons replaced it for a moment as a large number of them took off after the ambushing Wonderbolts, then it all went quiet.

"Luna damn it," Pinkie muttered. "They just couldn't leave us be, could they?"

"What are you talking about Pinkie?" Limestone asked as her pink sister muttered to herself loud enough to be heard by the others.

"Nothing!"

"Uh-huh..." Limestone frowned up at the sky, putting Pinkie out of her mind. "Well? Now what? You can't tell me they just did that for fun?"

"I don't think so," Maud said, pointing a hoof over at the stands. "Look."

Dark shapes flitted up over the stands, viciously cutting down the remaining griffons guarding the prisoners. In less than half a minute the griffons had fallen to a swarm of dark shapes that were recognisable to the ponies there as the Night Guard, doing what they did best in the dark.

"Listen up!" one of the thestrals shouted as more of them broke the lock on the gates to let them out. "We're getting you out of here. Your weapons are in a cart outside, so grab them and start heading to the train station. Try to be as quick as you can."

"Hah, weapons," Limestone said bitterly as ponies started streaming towards the exit. "We should be so lucky. I bet they forgot to bring our rocks."

"And here I am with mine stuck to my head," Lyra joked. "If only we weren't so horribly outnumbered, I might have used it," she added.

"Not anymore," said Maud, leading the way as they ran out of the stadium. As predicted their bags of rocks had been neglected, so they just ran straight for the station, relying on Lyra, Crystal, and everypony else to protect them.

Not that the griffons were being given much of a chance to attack them. Weapons rang in the air above the fleeing ponies as the Night Guard clashed with the griffons, using their natural element of darkness to a far greater effect than the griffons could. To a thestral, the bright, shiny armour some of the griffons wore practically glowed in the dark. They may as well have painted targets on themselves.

The griffons still had numbers though, and were starting to gather together enough to mount an effective resistance, only to have it quickly blown apart as the Wonderbolts re-joined the fight, followed by a large number of yet more thestrals.
Most of this was missed by the ponies running below, as the battle above was hidden in the dark. The occasional falling body was the only real proof that it was happening at all. Their concern was getting to the station and out of there anyway. They'd been given a chance, and they weren't going to waste it.

"I know there's a griffon invasion going on, but they could still have lit the street lights," Crystal complained as she tripped over a kerb, catching herself before she fell over. "Where are all the ponies that live here anyway?"

"Hiding hopefully," said Azure. "Kinda reminds me of when the gangs in Manehattan used to get into fights. Everypony else just stays the hell away."

"Used to?" Limestone said to Azure. "What do you mean used to?"

"Eh, they made peace years ago. Apparently they worked out that they were kinda being idiots, and stopped it all. Now the gangs barely exist any more."

"Let's move it ponies!" a male voice shouted from above, coming from a male Wonderbolt that was perched on the roof of the station. "Get straight on the train, no fucking around! If the train drivers happen to be here as well, that'd be great because we don't really know how this thing works!"

"Yeesh, some rescue this will be if they can't even get the train working," Limestone grumbled as they kept running, heading for one of the carriages as the Wonderbolts kept the area clear. They jumped aboard, and tried to find somewhere they could see from as the carriages filled up with ponies.

A couple of minutes later, once everypony was aboard, the train lurched into motion. Pinkie forced her way to the front, trying to see what was happening, and to see whether the Wonderbolts and thestrals were coming. If Rainbow got herself killed for a rescue Pinkie didn't really want, then it really, really wasn't worth it.

"They're falling back! The griffons are falling back!"

Rainbow sighed with relief at the shout from one of the thestrals. If the griffons were giving up to let them escape with the prisoners, then this could be soundly called a win. A win they needed too after the way things had been going. She looped around to start following the train as all the other fliers did the same, save those thestrals that flew higher to serve as over watch against any attacks the griffons might be planning.

The remainder of her squadron gathered together, having thankfully not lost another during the short-lived fight, although Lightning was flying awkwardly. Rainbow was about to ask what was wrong when Lightning's wings failed her and she dropped. Rainbow raced down, grabbing hold of Lightning before she came even close to hitting the ground, and pulled her back up.

"Are you alright Lightning?"

Lightning removed her left hoof from a spot between her right shoulder and her wing, uncovering a deep cut that was dripping blood down her side. "I don't think it's too bad. Fucking hurts though."

"Uh, alright, um... we need to get to the train. Help me out here guys!"

Thunderlane flew under the two ponies, letting Rainbow lower Lightning onto his back as Cloud flew on to the rear of the train, pulling the door open to allow Thunderlane to land inside and slide Lightning off.

Rainbow quickly pulled Lightning's flightsuit down to uncover the wound, and pressed her hooves down on it to staunch the bleeding. "Medic! We need a medic!"

"You're way overreacting Dash," Lightning said as a pony rushed forwards to start treating her. "I'm not going to die from this."

"Fuck you Lightning. I think we've lost enough ponies lately to not take any fucking risks."

Lightning snorted a laugh and laid her head back, "Alright, I know, I know." She sighed, then winced in pain as the medic worked. "I don't know about you guys, but I could really use a break after today. Canterlot better have somewhere you can get a decent cocktail, or something."

Lurin kept his rage to himself, but betrayed it through a rattle in his golden armour as he tried his best to not smack Theron in his stupid face. The fool had taken the 'initiative' to send more griffons down to Baltimare, only to find the ponies had already completed their missions and left, while leaving Fillydelphia under-defended and unprepared for when the Wonderbolts and Night Guard attacked. They'd lost over a hundred griffons, while the Equestrians lost three thestrals and a Wonderbolt, and made off with around six hundred captives. It was a poor trade.

"I'm seriously reconsidering our contract, boy. What foolishness led you to stretch your forces, my forces, so thin? Do you wish to impress Faust that much?"

"The pegasi were all reported to have left the area, and we have a mission to secure vital assets for Faust. What was I supposed to do?"

The Commander of the Golden Claws raised an eyebrow at Theron, "Do you really think Faust brought a massive invasion force because she expected you to try and secure three entire cities with three thousand griffons? I rather think she was expecting resistance from Equestrian forces!"

"But there wasn't any!"

Lurin rolled his eyes, "I realise that, just as I realise they were here to destroy some of what Faust wanted, and beat you to it all along the east coast. You decided to go running off to capture those so called objectives. You and no one else."

"The mission parameters changed."

"Because you decided they did! Have you put even the slightest bit of thought of why the Equestrians would sabotage themselves like that?"

"Because they knew they couldn't stop us."

Lurin waited a beat, "And..?"

"And what? What you mean 'and?' They've realised they can't beat us and the Mareitanians."

"It means they've changed their tactics. If my scouts are right, the Equestrians are all falling back to Canterlot, to fortify the city."

Theron laughed snidely, "Sounds like they're running scared to me."

"Not to me. They realise they can't win in a pitched against the Mareitanians, so they've decided to secure Canterlot and make it hard to capture. If they were so convinced they're going to lose, why not surrender?"

"Oh please Lurin, it's only a matter of time until Faust cracks that place open."

"I know that, and I suspect the Equestrians know that too. They must be banking on something turning the tide of this war, but what?"

Author's Notes:

So, Forgotten Friendship. I loved it, like a whole bunch. I especially liked the twist where Celestia actually hated Sunset, but couldn't say so in front of Twilight without causing serious disillusionment in her more successful student. Always good for a laugh is Celestia.

Also Twilight was super Twilight-y, which is always good, as is plenty of pony Sunset, and a lack of people turning into monsters. So much good.